National Weather Service - Hastings Office, (Brian Neben, Central Nebraska Today)
HASTINGS — With temperatures in the 80s (and 90s) and lots of warm sunshine, the fall hasn’t felt much like fall. However, winter weather will come and the National Weather Service (NWS) doesn’t want anyone left “out in the cold”.
This winter, the NWS will transition to a focus on “the cold” by simplifying a few of our winter weather products. Beginning today, Wind Chill Watch/Warning/Advisory will be consolidated into the Extreme Cold Watch/Warning and Cold Weather Advisory.
The bottom line is the NWS will focus on the impacts of extreme cold regardless of the wind. The graphic (below) provides a simple explanation of the changes for users of NWS products. This change begins today, Oct. 1, 2024.
Specifically, the criteria for Extreme Cold Watches/Warnings and Cold Weather Advisories will be as follows:
South Central Nebraska
- Cold Weather Advisory: Air or feel-like temperatures between -20° and -30°
- Extreme Cold Watch/Warning: Air or feel-like temperatures colder than -30°
North Central Kansas
- Cold Weather Advisory: Air or feel-like temperatures between -15° to -25°
- Extreme Cold Watch/Warning: Air or feel-like temperatures colder than -25
The benefit of this change is a focus on “cold is cold” regardless of the wind. Wind Chill information is not going away and will be readily available. However, the Wind Chill will not be the basis for NWS cold weather headlines. The focus will be on the cold itself.
Other benefits will be unified messaging across the United States and the ability to offer clearer Watch/Warning/Advisory maps on weather.gov and local NWS Weather Forecast Office graphics.
In addition to the changes already mentioned, the NWS is simplifying freeze related products by consolidating previously used “Hard Freeze” wording into a single Freeze Watch or Freeze Weather (see image immediately below).
These changes to cold weather messaging products (cold and freeze) are more in a series of changes in recent years to consolidate and simplify NWS products to make messaging impactful weather easier to understand. They reflect years of internal testing and external interactions with partners who desire a more simplified approach to hazardous weather messaging.
About the National Weather Service
The National Weather Service’s Hastings Forecast Office located in Hastings, NE., is the primary source of weather data, forecasts and warnings for people in 24 south central Nebraska counties and 6 north central Kansas counties. Join us on Facebook and Twitter. Working with partners, the National Weather Service is building a Weather-Ready Nation to support community resilience in the face of increasing vulnerability to extreme weather.
Cold weather advisories, (NWS Hastings, Courtesy)
